Hinsdale-Based Conservative Group Denounced At Meeting

HINSDALE, IL – A Hinsdale-based conservative group says it wants to protect children, but a Hinsdale business owner contends it is doing the opposite.

Susie Thorpe, owner of Seasons Therapy Group, mainly spoke about flooding at Tuesday's Village Board meeting. But she also criticized the Concerned Parents of Illinois, whose founder is Hinsdale resident Kristina McCloy.

Patch left an emailed message with McCloy, a former Downers Grove Township trustee, on Wednesday morning. She has not returned messages over the last few years.

Thorpe said Concerned Parents' rhetoric fails to support children's mental health and safety.

"In recent years, hate groups masquerading as political groups under the names of Concerned Parents of Hinsdale and now Illinois have become active around our school and our library policies," she said. "These groups have also drawn attention and controversy due to statements and agendas that many in our community view as exclusionary and harmful toward vulnerable youth, particularly our LGBTQ students and families."

Afterward, village officials commented on the flooding issue, but not the Concerned Parents group.

A few years ago, McCloy created a Facebook page for Concerned Parents of Hinsdale. She later expanded it to Concerned Parents of Illinois.

In 2024, McCloy also formed a political action committee called Concerned Parents, but she ended it last summer, according to state election records.

According to Concerned Parents' Facebook page, the group wants to foster a culture of academic excellence, traditional family values and conservative principles.

In 2024, McCloy asserted on the Concerned Parents page that schools are hiding the issue of African American children attacking white children.

Last year, McCloy told a conservative publication that she successfully pressured Hinsdale School District 181 to remove two books from its library collections. The district denied that.